1. Chapter 8: Managing Stress and Work-Life Balance
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Chapter Objectives
Describe how the experience of stress is based on employees’ perceptions and influenced by individual differences
Appreciate the fact that stress can have both positive and negative consequences for employees and their organizations
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3. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Chapter Objectives
Be aware of stressors that can arise from employees’ personal lives, their jobs, their work groups and organizations, the pursuit of work-life balance, and uncertainty in the wider environment
Describe problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies for individuals
Describe problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies for organizations
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What is Stress?
The experience of opportunities or threats that people perceive as important and also perceive they might not be able to handle or deal with effectively
Stress can result from both positive and negative factors as long as those things are important to the person. Uncertainty is also a part of stress. The person who is experiencing an important opportunity or threat is not sure that he or she can effectively deal with it. When people are confident that they can effectively handle an opportunity or threat, they usually do not experience stress. Stress is rooted in perception. Whether people experience stress depends on how they perceive potential opportunities and threats and how they perceive their capabilities to deal with them.
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5. Individual Differences and Stress
Personality
Ability
An individual’s experience of stress depends on a number of factors such as how important a person thinks a given opportunity or threat is and the extent to which a person thinks he or she can deal effectively with the opportunity or threat. Stress is a very personal experience.
Individual differences – personality and ability – play a significant role in determining how members of an organization perceive and think about potential sources of stress, their ability to deal with stress effectively, and ultimately the extent to which they experience stress.
Employees differ in their abilities which can affect stress levels. Stress can be experienced when employees lack the ability necessary to perform their jobs.
People are more likely to feel stressed when they are doing something that they lack experience in, and they are less likely to feel stressed as they gain experience.
Personality is discussed on the next slide.
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6. Personality and Stress
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Openness to Experience
Self-Esteem
Type A
Locus of Control
Employees who are high on neuroticism have a general tendency to view themselves, their organizations, their jobs, and the people they work with in a negative manner. They also tend to experience more stress than those low on negative affectivity.
Extraverts are less likely to experience stress in jobs requiring frequent presentations or meetings with new people on a frequent basis.
Employees who are high on openness to experience may find risk taking and frequent change less stressful than those who are low on openness to experience.
Employees who are high on self-esteem are less likely to experience stress from challenging work assignments and are also more likely to think that they can deal effectively with sources of stress.
Type A employees have stress experiences different from those of Type B employees.
Employees with an internal locus of control may experience less stress than those with an external locus of control because they feel that they can influence what happens to them.
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7. Consequences of Stress
Physiological
Consequences
Psychological
Consequences
Behavioral
Consequences
Because what an employee considers stress is highly personal, employees differ in the extent to which they experience the consequences of stress, even when they are exposed to the same sources of stress. Consequences of stress are of three main types: physiological, psychological, and behavioral.
Potential physiological consequences include sweaty palms, feeling flushed, trembling, pounding heart, elevated blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, nausea, stomachaches, backaches, hives, and heart attacks. Two individuals experiencing the same high levels of stress may have different physiological reactions. Some people experience more physiological consequences than others. The most serious physiological consequences occur only after considerably high levels of stress are experienced for a prolonged period of time.
The experience of stressful feelings and emotions are one of the major psychological consequences of stress. Stressful feelings and emotions can range from being in a bad mood, feeling anxious, worried, and upset to feeling angry, scornful, bitter, or hostile. People tend to have more negative attitudes when they experience stress. Employees who are highly stressed tend to have low levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
The potential behavioral consequence of stress on job performance is of great interest to managers. See Figure 9.2 in an upcoming slide. This figure addresses the relationship between stress and performance.
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Signs of Burnout
Feelings of
low personal accomplishment
Emotional exhaustion
depersonalization
Burnout - psychological, emotional, or physical exhaustion – is a special kind of psychological consequence of stress that afflicts some employees who experience high levels of work stress day in and day out for an extended period of time. It is especially likely to occur when employees are responsible for helping, protecting, or taking care of other people. Nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers, lawyers, and police officers are at risk for developing burnout due to the nature of their jobs.
The three key signs of burnout are feelings of low personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization.
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Figure 8.1 A Stress Quiz
Conditions at work are unpleasant or even unsafe.
I feel that my job is making me physically or emotionally sick
I have too much work or too many unreasonable deadlines.
I can’t express my opinions or feelings about my job to my boss.
My work interferes with my family or personal life.
I have no control over my life at work.
My good performance goes unrecognized and unrewarded.
My talents are underutilized at work.
Respond to each item using the following scale: 1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often, and 5 = Very Often.
Responses to each item are summed to yield an overall stress score. Scores at or below 15 are indicative of low stress while those above 25 are indicative of high stress.
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10. Figure 8.2 An Inverted U Relationship Between Stress and Performance
This figure illustrates the behavioral consequence of stress. Up to a certain point, increases in stress enhance performance. Beyond that point, further increases in stress impair performance. Stress up to point A is positive stress because it propels employees to perform at a high level. Stress beyond point A is negative stress because it impairs performance. Each person has to find the right level of stress for him or herself. It should be enough to feel productive and fulfilled but not too much to be overwhelming.
In addition to poor job performance, excessively high levels of stress may also lead to absenteeism and turnover.
In Japan, where work overload is a significant source of stress for many employee, an extreme behavioral consequence is karoshi – death from overwork.
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Sources of Stress
Personal Life
Job
Responsibilities
Membership in
Groups
There are five major potential stressors. They are each discussed in the following slides.
Environmental
Uncertainty
Work-Life Balance
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12. Personal Sources of Stress
Major Life Events
Death of a loved one
Divorce
Serious illness
Getting arrested
Getting married
Buying a house
Having a baby
Minor Life Events
Getting a speeding ticket
Have trouble with your in-laws
Getting caught in traffic
Going on vacation
Getting a new assignment at work
Personal sources of stress can come from major life events or minor life events and may be positive or negative in nature. How stressed a person generally feels appears to depend not only on the extent to which the stressors occur and how significant they are for the person but on how many of them occur simultaneously during any given period.
Table 9.1 lists sample items from a life event checklist to determine overall stress levels.
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13. Job-Related Stressors
Role conflict
Role ambiguity
Overload
Underload
Challenging assignments
Economic well-being and job security
This slide presents six job-related stressors.
Role conflict occurs when expected behaviors or tasks are at odds with each other.
Role ambiguity is the uncertainty that occurs when employees are not sure about what is expected of them and how they should perform their jobs. This is especially important for new employees.
Overload is the condition of having too many tasks to perform. According to a recent study, dual-career couples worked, on average, 91 hours per week in 2003, compared to an average of 81 hours per week in Overload is particularly prevalent among middle and top managers.
Underload means not having enough work to do and it can also be a source of stress.
Promotions and challenging assignments can be a source of stress for employees with low self-efficacy and/or ability.
Stressors that affect employees’ economic well-being and job security are also powerful sources of stress (e.g., threats of layoffs and downsizing).
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14. Group and Organization-Related Stressors
Cultural differences
Uncomfortable working conditions
Unsafe working conditions
Mergers and acquisitions
At the work-group level, misunderstandings, conflicts, and interpersonal disagreements can be sources of negative stress for group members. More organizations are assembling cross-cultural teams whose members come from different countries. Misunderstandings and conflicts due to cultural differences are sometimes sources of stress in these teams.
Uncomfortable working conditions are another source of stress. Examples include excessive noise, temperature extremes, poorly designed office equipment and machinery.
Unsafe working conditions such as working with toxic chemicals, with dangerous machinery, in nuclear power plants, or with people who have communicable diseases like AIDS can cause stress and injuries.
Mergers and acquisitions are often a source of stress, particularly for employees in the acquired firm. They may feel like second-class citizens and fear that they might be laid off.
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Work-Life Balance
Elder care
Child care
Value conflict
A recent study found that 85% of US employees have responsibilities for family members living at home. This, in conjunction with the fact that employees are working longer hours than they did 20 years ago, suggests that achieving a balance between work and life outside of work can be a real challenge.
Another form of conflict between work and personal life occurs when employees are requested to do things that go against their own personal values or when they work in organizations with ethics different from their own.
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16. Environmental Uncertainty
Global instability
Aftermath of war and terrorism
SARS
Corporate scandals
Exposure to toxins
Employees also experience stress from uncertainty and crises in the wider environment in which organizations operate. This slide lists examples of stressors stemming from the wider environment.
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18. Nonfunctional Coping Strategies
Eating
Drinking
Taking drugs
While exercise, meditation, social support of family and friends, and clinical counseling are all functional, emotion-focused coping strategies, there are other emotion-focused ways of coping that are less functional. Some people react to high levels of stress by eating too much, drinking too much, or taking drugs. These ways are never effective in alleviating stressful feelings and emotions in the long run and may create more problems such as being overweight, being addicted to alcohol or drugs, and being unable to function to one’s fullest capacity.
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19. Coping Strategies for Organizations
Problem- focused
Job redesign
Job rotation
Reduction of uncertainty
Job security
Company day care
Flextime/ job sharing
Telecommuting
Emotion-focused
On-site exercise facilities
Organizational support
Employee assistance programs
Personal days/ Sabbaticals
Managers and organizations can do several things to deal with problems and opportunities that are sources of stress for employees. Some problem-focused coping strategies for organizations are job redesign and rotation, reduction of uncertainty, job security, company day care, flexible work schedules, job sharing, and telecommuting.
Job redesign can reduce negative stress caused by high levels of role conflict, role ambiguity, overload, or underload, or to improve working conditions. The job characteristics model suggests which aspects are especially important to consider – skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. When job redesign is not an option, job rotation can sometimes alleviate stress. Increasing employee participation in decision making is one way to reduce uncertainty for employees. Another way is to improve communication. Whenever possible, provide employees with job security.
Organizations can help employees cope effectively with stressful feelings and emotions through such things as on-site exercise facilities, organizational support, employee assistance programs, and personal days and sabbaticals.
Employee assistance programs (EAPs) provide employees with professional help to deal with stressors. Employee health management programs (EHMPs) are a special kind of EAP designed to promote the well-being of employees and encourage healthy lifestyles.
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